Tarrytown News

Tarrytown Fortifies Penalty for Parking Permit Violations

Published 9 years ago9y ago • Bookmarks: 63

May 7, 2015

| by Robert Kimmel |

Tougher consequences are in store for car owners who get caught wrongfully using a feature included with the issuance of Tarrytown parking permits. Five years ago, the Village Board of Trustees, “…in an attempt to provide parking permit holders greater flexibility, allowed for the placement of two license plates numbers on one parking permit.” That fact-finding statement released at a recent village hearing, continued that the rule “…enabled a parking permit holder to use either vehicle with a license plate listed on the permit.”

Tarrytown Village Administrator Michael Blau offered an example further explaining the rule. “It would allow you, if your primary car is in a shop, to use another car whose license is listed on the permit, to park at the railroad station. You don’t have to pay anything extra to put two cars on a permit. However, the permit does not allow you to park both cars listed on the permit at the station at the same time. And that is just what a few offenders were doing. “We didn’t have a lot to address this particular problem,” Blau told The Hudson Independent.

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One auto owner was found to have duplicated the permit and apparently the duplicate was used routinely to park a second car at the station. Parking tickets were issued to that offender and others, but routine penalties were the limit the village could impose for the violation. That has changed. “To address this abuse,” the trustees have taken two actions to tackle the problem. The first action is “…to make clear the obvious: that the one permit is valid on one vehicle at a time.” The second, they state, “Is to enable the village treasurer to revoke a parking permit when it is discovered that the use of the parking permit is being abused.”

Anyone who is “…issued a summons for a violation relating to the creation of any form of copy of a parking permit shall have their permit issued by the village, immediately revoked,” reads the new amendment to the Village Code. Those who have their permit revoked can appeal that action to the Village Administrator, but any decision he makes cannot be appealed. In addition, the amendment under, “Penalties for Offenses,” states that anyone guilty of the infraction, which is not a violation of New York State laws, could be fined up to $250 or could be imprisoned for not more than 15 days, or both.

Of the 713 resident permits and 449 non-resident permits issued, “…the vast majority of people have two cars on their permits,” Blau said, “Unless, of course, they have only one car.” Annual charges for the permits presently cost residents $350, and non-residents $1,150. As of the end of April and the village’s announcement of the tougher penalties, there have been no new summonses issued for duplication of the parking permit.

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